title: Screening for adjustment disorders and major depressive disorders in cancer in-patients.
abstract: The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), a four-point, 14-item questionnaire, was tested as a screening method for adjustment disorders and major depressive disorders in a sample of 210 cancer in-patients. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed, giving the relationship between the true positive rate (sensitivity) and the false positive rate (1-specificity). This makes it possible to choose an optimal cut-off point that takes into account the costs and benefits of treatment of psychological distress. For screening for major depressive disorders only, a cut-off score of 19 gave 70% sensitivity and 75% specificity. For screening for adjustment disorders and major depressive disorders taken together, a cut-off score of 13 gave 75% sensitivity and 75% specificity. HADS appears in this study to be a simple, sensitive and specific tool for screening for psychiatric disorders in an oncology in-patient population.
authors.affiliation: Institut Jules Bordet, Centre des Tumeurs de l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Razavi
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Delvaux
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Farvacques
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Robaye
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000275:Adjustment Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010556:Personality Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012803:Sick Role